


butterfly flaps its wings (and I say 'tis true)

by Liliace



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Good Obadiah, I Don't Even Know, Obadiah is Tony's godfather, Obadiah's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 20:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5884750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liliace/pseuds/Liliace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Obadiah acted like the father figure Tony thought he was?</p>
<p>In which Obadiah is actually good, and this changes things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	butterfly flaps its wings (and I say 'tis true)

**Author's Note:**

> So, I had a random thought once: how would things have gone if Obadiah wasn't a bad guy? Then, naturally, I wanted to write a fic about it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, places, etc etc.

It takes them two weeks to find Tony Stark. Even that was only accomplished because of the joint effort of four people – well, three people plus an artificial intelligence.

AI 'Just A Rather Very Intelligent System' Jarvis does most of the searching. He looks through the internet, hacks into everything he can, and observes any kind of communication from any relatively important people.

Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes does most of the looking. He organizes military search parties and leads most of them, interrogates everyone he can get away with interrogating, and doesn't bother sleeping any more than absolutely necessary until his best friend is found.

Miss Virginia 'Pepper' Potts manages most of the business with Stark Industries. She makes sure nothing crumbles in her employer's absence, placates both the public and the shareholders, and in general takes care of everything so Obadiah can focus on finding Tony.

It's Mister Obadiah 'Obie' Stane who handles most of the information gathering. He demands answers from military and agencies alike, doesn't take no for an answer, and ventures into the desert himself to intimidate suspected parties. He's the one who hires private investigators, sends expeditions to look for Tony, and doesn't hesitate in using any means necessary to get his godson back.

That last point is the key. Jarvis may be smarter than everyone else combined, Rhodey a figure no one would want to cross, and Pepper a storm that can shake the ground, but Obadiah is ruthless, merciless, and will stop at nothing to find Tony.

He won't stop when he realizes that someone high up organized the kidnapping, he won't stop when Nicholas Fury glares at him from behind the desk, and he won't stop when Alexander Pierce tells him platitudes. He won't stop until he gets someone to crack, to tell him how HYDRA still exists and wanted Tony Stark out of the picture so he wouldn't make weapons people can use to fight against them, and then he gets them to give him all the names they know.

He won't stop until Rhodey is flying over the desert with a set destination in mind, until he gets a call that Tony is alive and they're taking him to the hospital, until he can sit down next to Tony and see his godson with his own two eyes again. Only then does he stop, and breathe, and relax.

But captivity changed Tony. For the better or worse, no one knows quite yet, but Tony is different. He refuses to make weapons, avoids people even more than before, and has a hole in his chest. A hole that houses a magnet connected to a car battery; a hole that Obadiah swears to put in the chests of all those behind it.

Obadiah doesn't try to talk Tony into designing and building more weapons. If Tony ever trusts humanity enough to do so again, Obadiah would welcome that choice with open arms. But until then, he understands Tony's reluctance and knows how easily the weapons can end up in the wrong hands, so he accepts Tony's decision and tries his best to handle the fallout with Pepper's help.

Never let it be said that Obadiah was forgiving, though. So as much as he focuses on keeping the shareholders as happy as possible and minimizing the damage done to the stock prizes, he also focuses on revenge.

Within a week, it's open war between SHIELD and HYDRA. Also within that same week, Tony miniaturized the Arc Reactor technology and built himself a body armour. Body armour that can fight, and fight well, actually, and Obadiah watches on the television as his godson risks his life for people Obadiah told him were helpful to the investigation.

Alexander Pierce dies, yet HYDRA definitely didn't die with him. It's a win, though, especially since Pierce was the mastermind behind Tony's capture. SHIELD is reorganized, and Fury more furious than normally as he needs to fill the holes HYDRA agents left behind.

SHIELD doesn't know that it's Tony behind the armour, and Obadiah works hard to keep it that way. It's not too difficult to talk Tony into keeping his identity a secret as Tony isn't yet ready to face whatever the world may throw at him, but Fury is one clever spymaster. With the combined effort of Tony, Obadiah, and Jarvis, though, no one can stand against them.

Tony goes to Obadiah when he decides to change the company's direction to green energy. Obadiah goes with it because Tony is the smartest person he knows, and there's no way it won't make profit if it's Tony's idea. That is a lesson Obadiah only learned when Tony took over the company, as Howard's ideas were hit and miss. He makes sure to tell Tony that whenever his godson is feeling inadequate in comparison.

It all goes well. Stark Industries' stock prices skyrocket, and Pepper and Obadiah can finally rest. Or, they could if Tony didn't keep flying around, destroying his old weaponry, and generally risking his life in stunts that keep both of them and Rhodey up in worry.

Then Tony makes Obadiah the CEO of the company. And that was never Obadiah's goal; ruthless businessman that he might be, he also knows that there's a reason why the company's name has 'Stark' on it. It wouldn't be the same without Tony running it. It hadn't been the same without Howard either, and though Obadiah was basically the effective CEO of SI after Tony's parents died when he was still a teenager, it didn't work out quite as well as Obadiah imagined it would.

That was something most people didn't understand. Even when Tony was at his most irresponsible, Tony made the company into what it was. Of course people knew that he invented things for SI, but they didn't realise just how big of a part Tony played in shaping the company and its direction.

They'd probably realise it soon enough, though, what with Tony basically taking a sabbatical from all things related to SI. Obadiah can't help but worry because of it, and not only because the company is suffering, but also because Tony wouldn't give up his CEO status on a whim. Which obviously means that there's a deeper reason for it.

Tony's dying. That's the reason. Obadiah goes into a rage when Tony tells him, but falls out of it in time to help Tony figure out a way to survive.

Creating a new element was Obadiah's idea. He has ultimate faith in his godson, and knows that Tony can accomplish anything. Thus, when all existing things fail, it's logical to make something new. It even works, and Obadiah offers the CEO title back to Tony, who gracefully accepts.

By that point, Rhodey has stolen a suit and despite Tony's assurances that he couldn't have gotten one if Tony himself didn't allow it, Obadiah feels contempt towards the soldier. There's nothing he can do, however, except remind Tony that he deserves better and demand that Rhodey do everything he can to make it up to Tony. Obadiah would have preferred to sue Rhodey, to be honest, but the suits were Tony's private property and thus he was incapable of doing so.

SHIELD's apparent lack of interest in the Iron Man's identity causes worry in Obadiah, but then Tony tells him that the agency was too busy with tracking HYDRA soldiers to bother with a vigilante, and Obadiah can rest a bit easier. He doesn't ask how Tony knows it, but the two most likely answers are that Fury asked a favour or that Jarvis hacked into SHIELD.

For a while, Tony and Obadiah and Pepper are busy with the planning of a Stark tower in New York. It's going to run completely on green energy, and Tony is so excited about it that Obadiah even forgets about the shareholders' glee for a moment.

On the opening night, however, Fury calls and demands that Tony study something called a Tesseract, and tells him to send his bodyguard to the SHIELD base. Naturally, Tony can't study it and be Iron Man at the same time, so he forgoes the latter in the face of his own curiosity. Nevertheless, it's completely expected when Tony flies off to fight the bad guys.

Neither Obadiah nor Pepper hear from Tony in a while. They go their separate ways and handle the work for the Stark Industries and try to ignore how Tony is somewhere, probably getting shot at, with a hole in his chest that houses a completely new element.

Then come the news of the Battle of New York, as it's later titled. Everyone watches with a baited breath as a group of extraordinary humans fight some exquisite aliens, and then later, how Iron Man flies into the wormhole with a nuke in his arms. Obadiah wonders where he failed that Tony is so ready to welcome death.

He also has a second to worry about what to tell the public about Tony's disappearance, whether he should out him as Iron Man or make up a story. It's only a second, however, because Tony falls back through the hole in the sky and the news feed show Iron Man getting up at the Hulk's roar.

Obadiah makes sure that SHIELD has the mastermind behind the invasion, Loki, securely behind bars before leaving the agency alone. Then he gets promptly told by Tony that Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, is actually alive, and Obadiah almost asks to meet the guy. He doesn't, though, because Tony's twitchy and anxious and Obadiah's requests can wait for another day.

When another day is faced with more trouble than even Tony can dig his way out of, Obadiah wonders how this became his life. Perhaps it was at the point where he befriended Howard, or agreed to be the godfather to his son, or perhaps it was when Howard died or when Tony got kidnapped.

No matter, though. That was his life now, and Obadiah wasn't the sort of person to waste time or thoughts on 'what if's.

And that was good. Because if Obadiah had been a different sort of person, this might have been a very different tale.

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes: 1) Tony built the Arc Reactor in a week because he had proper equipment this time (and still needed to fix the whole battery issue); 2) Tony still built the Iron Man suits because why the fuck not?; 3) Yinsen lived, but he's not important to Obadiah so he isn't mentioned at all; 4) Pepper and Tony may or may not be together, also unimportant for the progress of this story; 5) Yes, HYDRA organizing Tony's kidnapping is a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to follow canon plot lines.
> 
> I'd love to hear what you think about this, so please leave a comment! This whole story is very random, so any kind of opinions would be very much appreciated.
> 
> (Also, I'll accept prompts if anyone is feeling like giving me some. You can just leave a comment here, or send a message to me at [my tumblr](liliace.tumblr.com))


End file.
